It had been a most unusual day, and considering all that Harry had been through, that was saying something. He had found the Philosopher's Stone, defeated a basilisk, fought off a horde of dementors, and won the Triwizard Cup, but right now he was dumbfounded that Draco Malfoy, his arch nemesis since their first year, had saved his life today…twice.

"Who are you?" Bellatrix Lestrange demanded, looking at Malfoy closely. "Why do you wear the robes of a Death Eater?"

"It matters not, Bellatrix," Lucius said, pinching the bridge of his nose in an expression of profound annoyance. "Dispose of him."

With that command, the bombardment began. Malfoy had cast protego totalus around them, but there was no telling how long the shield would hold up under the constant fire of four, highly skilled wizards.

Harry struggled into a sitting position, his limbs still numb from his recent exposure to the torture curse. "What are you doing, Malfoy?" he hissed.

The other boy rolled his eyes. "Did the cruciatus curse fry your brain, Potter? What does it look like? I'm keeping us both from getting killed."

"I can help, too."

The look of irritation on Malfoy's face rivaled that of his father. "Enlighten me if I'm missing something here, Potter, but last time I checked you don't have your wand."

Harry groaned inwardly as he remembered. One glance at Bellatrix, and he could see that she was still grasping his wand tightly with her long, bony fingers.

"Summon it for me, then," he said, his eyes still on his wand.

"I'm a little busy here, Potter." Malfoy's face was taut with concentration as he focused all of his energy on maintaining the shield that was the only thing standing between them and the receiving end of a Death Eaters' lethal spell.

"But you can't possibly win against four of them on your own!"

"I'm not trying to beat them," he said in a low voice. "The Order should be here any second—we just have to hold out 'til then."

This sentence sounded absurd coming out of Malfoy's mouth, but once again, Harry decided that it was not the best time to question him about it.

The four Death Eaters were calmly sending a volley of spells at them, smiles of satisfaction on their faces. They knew that the charm wouldn't hold forever. Their prey was cornered, all they had to do was wait for their time to pounce.

At this rate, Harry knew that they wouldn't last more than a minute or two. They needed to take a couple—no, even taking down one of them would buy them a bit more time.

Malfoy was apparently thinking the same thing. "I'm going to try to take one of them out," he said through gritted teeth, "but I'm going to have to put the shield down for a second, so I want you to get behind me, Potter."

Harry looked at Malfoy as if he had gone insane. "What?"

"I said, get behind me."

He scoffed. "So you can protect me? You're the one whose brain is fried if you think I'm going to do that."

"Just do it, Potter. You may be a little twerp, but you're indispensable to the Order. That means that you can't die here. If I time this wrong—"

"Then don't time it wrong," Harry said, unfazed. He had been through worse than this—there was no way that he was going to cower behind Malfoy of all people.

Malfoy stared at him for a long moment. Finally, he said, "I've remembered why I hated you for all these years, Potter. You're a stubborn, incorrigible dunderhead."

Harry sent him a smirk that would have made any Malfoy proud. "I'm glad we've cleared that up."

The shield shuddered, and Malfoy fell silent as he put his full attention into sustaining it.

"Are you going to kill them?" Harry asked quietly. After last year, he didn't want to see anyone die in front of him again. Not even a Death Eater.

Malfoy glanced down at him. "No," he said at last, "contrary to what you may believe, Potter, I'm not a murderer."

"I knew that," Harry said half-heartedly. To tell the truth, he had wondered sometimes if Malfoy would be willing to go that far. He knew that his father certainly was.

Malfoy was watching the Death Eaters intently, no doubt looking for an opening to attack. Harry followed his lead, tuning closely into the rhythm of the battle. All they needed was a short lull, even just a few seconds would be enough. After several breathless moments, it came. Now! he thought to himself.

As if reading his mind, Malfoy released the shield and cast a well-aimed stunning spell towards the Death Eater standing nearest to them. He hit his mark, and the large man fell to the ground with a hard thud.

It was a great victory, but there was no time to celebrate. Malfoy had uttered protego totalus even before the Death Eater hit the floor, but the resulting shield stayed only a moment before flickering weakly and fading away.

Lucius Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrange and the other remaining Death Eater had already regrouped, and the steady barrage of spells had resumed. "Malfoy, we need the shield!" Harry cried as a nasty-looking curse whizzed past his ear.

"I'm trying!" Malfoy said in frustration. "My magical energy—it's almost gone!"

Then, it happened.

He felt as if he was watching in slow motion, just like with Cedric's death on that terrible night in the graveyard. He saw Lucius Malfoy mouth the words "Avada Kedavra" and cried out in horror as the fluorescent green spell streaked towards Malfoy.

Draco's head jerked up in surprise, his hood falling back to reveal his platinum blonde hair. His eyes widened slightly as he spotted the spell, but it was too late. The lethal curse hit him squarely in the chest, throwing him backward onto the ground.

Harry felt cold all over. He had just seen someone else die, right in front of his eyes. And once again, he had been unable to do anything to stop it.